Grae Burton: Residency Retrospective Exhibition

28 November 2011 – 15 January 2012, Photography Gallery

In March 2011, artist, actor, director and writer Grae Burton was invited by Sir James Wallace to become Artist in Residence as an art photographer at Rannoch. By Easter Burton had created the two triptychs called Easter Island Waiheke. During the past six months Burton has flourished in art photography creating six series of work containing over 50 images, most of which you will see in this Residency Retrospective exhibition.

Recently, the Wallace Arts Trust has assisted Burton in recovering the only existing copy of the body of work from his last residency installation performance/exhibition at the Suter Gallery in Nelson in 2006 called “Transformative”. Transformative is now part of the Wallace Arts Trust Collection.

Prior to the residency Burton had returned to Auckland after eight years in Nelson as Artistic Director of Nelson’s Independent Theatre and Arts Centre and Nelson’s Summer Shakespeare. Upon returning Burton reconnected to his previous love for photography, working predominantly as a live show video and photographic archiver while developing his stage and screen acting career.

Recently Burton won the Pain Awareness Month Art competition with his work SeeThe Planes and Learn How They Fly, which is included in this exhibition with two other works. Next year Burton will go into production on his feature film project The Book of Bees and an international theatre project Griffen and Sabine while continuing in all his artistic endeavors.

All Burton’s work in this Residency Retrospective is from 2011 (except the Appropriate Appropriatedseries), is single edition and is part of the Wallace Arts Trust Collection.